Building-block.



W. H. KOENIG.

BUILDING BLOCK.

APPLICATION FILED JUNM, 1911.

1 ,O25,406. Patented May 7, 1912.

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WILLIAM H. KOENIG', OF BELOIT, WISCONSIN.

BUILDING-BLOCK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 7, 1912.

Application filed June 5, 19 11. Serial in. 631,318.

Be it known that I, \VILLIAM H. KoENm, a citizen of the United States, residing at licloit. in the county of Rock and State of 'isconsin. have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Building-Blocks; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to concrete structures, and more especially to building blocks; and the object of the same is to construct a building block of concrete or like material in such manner that when built into a wall it will have a plurality of upright and horizontal air or ventilation passages closed from each other by the mortar orcement which connects the blocks. This and other objects are carried out by the construction hereinafter more fully described and claimed, and shown in the drawings wherein Figure 1 is a perspective view of one of these improved blocks. Fig. 2 is a plan view. Fig. 3 is an end elevation.

In the drawings is shown but one of said blocks but it is to be understood that they are to be built up into a wall or other structure as are bricks, excepting that the. blocks are by preference about 10 inches thick so that only one tier is necessary in order to build a wall. I have intended that the blocks in one row shall break joint with those in the next row without interrupting the vertical and horizontal air or ventilation passages yet to be described, and I might here say that the material of which these building blocks is made is not of necessity concrete, as it might be other material without departing from the principle of my invention.

The inner face 1 of each block is provided with about five dove-tailed projections 2, with four dove-tailed grooves 3 between them and a half-groove 4 along either vertical edge of this face. The outer face 11 is similarly provided with four dove-tailed tongues 12 and two half-tongues 14, and with about five dove-tailed grooves 13 as shown. All of these grooves and tongues by preference run vertical across the inner and outer .faces of the block, and when blocks are put end to end the half-grooves or half-tongues will complement those on adjacent blocksso that. when plastering is done on either a cling will be formed to lock the blocks togetherf However, it is quite possible to dispose these tongues and groovestransversely of the faces, when the same clinging. action would occur between superimposed blocks as will be clear; I consider it of advantage to dispose the cling grooves 3 of one face of the block out of alinement with the cling grooves 13 of the other face and opposlte the dovetailed tongues 12 thereof, for the reason that when a wall is to be built of double thickness those faces of contiguous blocks which have like cling grooves may be placed next to each other if cement is to be interposed as when it is desired that the two thicknesses shall cling to each other, or on the other hand those faces having differently disposed cling grooves may be placed next to each other when no cement is to be interposed. Thus the builder is given the lib erty of cementing the two thicknesses together and closing the upright passages formed by said cling grooves, or not, as he desires.

Each block is by preference made up of four walls "so-called, numbered 21, 22, 23

and 24 in Fig. 1, the first and the last being the outside walls and containing the tongues and grooves above described, and those numbered 22 and 23 being the inside walls and disposed between the other two. All edges of the walls are flat and in the upper edge and in one end of each wall is formed a groove-or gutter 25, and along the other end and the lower edge of each wall is formed a projecting rib 26, the ribs being curved in cross section and the grooves dished so as to receive them, but the ribs being somewhat smaller than the grooves so as to admit mortar or cement by which the blocks are connected in afinished wall. All these grooves and ribs are of less width than the thickness of the individual wall in which they occur so that portions of the flat edges remain at either side, and when the building blocks are brought together edge to edge each .wall meets that on the adjacent block where the tongue and groove register and where both edges register.

It will be seen that a wall built of these improved blocks comprises in effect four individual walls, allspaced from each other and each rather thin, and there are of necessity three spaces between four walls. In

these spaces in the act of forming this improved building block, I produce what might be called webs 30 and 31, those numbered 30 being disposed between the walls 21 and 22, and 23 and 24 respectively, and those I numbered 31 being disposed between the two innermost walls 22 and 23 and staggered with relation to those numbered as best seen in Fig. 1. In other words, the webs, which extend upright throughout the blocks, are disposed with two of those numbered 30 at the extremities of each block, and one numbered 31 (and double the width of the others) disposed at the center of the block, thereby producing two upright side passages 34, and two halves of an intermediate pas v upright air or ventilation passages throughout the wall; and as I make the passages wider than the webs between them, the former overlap each other at their side edges and any air flowing upward through said passages will render the complete wall quite cool in warm weather or any air trapped within passages will resist the penetration of the cold in cold weather. In addition the entire wall in rendered less liable to the influences of changing temperature by the plastering on its inner face and the stucco or pebble-dash on its outer face.

As thus far described it will be observed that the upright passages between any two individual walls comprise a number of upright fines disconnected entirely from each other; and in order to cause any series of fines to communicate with each other I make use of the following detail of construction.

The upper and lower extremities of each' web are cut off as seen at l0 or in other words they are caused to stop short of the upper and lower edges of the block itself; and therefore when a block is superimposed upon another these beveled ofl or cut off ends or extremities register with each other and produce transverse openings between the individual walls which of course also communicate with the upright openings or passages. Thereby are produced three sets of transverse air or ventilation passages in addition to the three sets of upright passages the transverse passages between any two individual walls communicating with the up right passages between the same individual walls and forming a network of passages as will be clear.

In building a complete all with building blocks of this character, each is laid as shown in Fig. 1 and the grooves or gutters 25 along the upper edges of its individual walls and down one end thereof are filled with mortar or cement, and when the blocks in the next row above are applied they are pressed into place so that the ribs 26 (which as above described are made somewhat smaller than the grooves) are forced down into the grooves the cement therein is caused to ooze out a little on either side where the edges are flatthereby making an air-tight joint at each point where the individual walls abut at the ends and at top and bottom of all the building blocks. Yet it should be observed that the grooves and the ribs are somewhat smaller than the width of the individual walls, and the mortar or cement which is caused to ooze out as described does not flow over into the passages 34 and 35, though even if it did it would fall to the bottom of the wall and could be removed before the latter was finished.

I do not confine myself to the material or the sizes or proportions of this building block, nor to details except as set forth below.

What is claimed as new is:

The herein described building block, the same composed of a seriesof upright walls each having grooves on two edges and tongues on the other two edges, and a series of upright webs between said walls and in staggered relation to each other so as to produce upright openings, each web being shorter than the height of the block and narrower than the adjacent opening and beveled off at its upper and lower extremities to produce transverse openings through the blocks, for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses. v WILLIAM H. KOENIG.

Witnesses:

EMMA KoENIe, HELEN WAADE. 

